This is the last batch of randomly selected Belgian stocks. As in the other “All Shares” series, there wil be a summary post where I will trim down the preliminary watch list to a more manageable short list. This time, 5 companies made it onto the preliminary watch list. So far I haven’t decided on a new country yet.
181. Reibel
This seems to be an almost zero worth shell of a bankrupt company. “Pass”.
182. Oxurion
This 1 mn EUR market cap Biotech company doesn’t look very convincing. “Pass”.
183. Tetrys
This 4 mn market cap company unfortunately has nothing to do with the famous Tetris game but is some kind of real estate development company. “Pass”.
184. Recticel
Recticel is a 715 mn EUR company that in the past did a lot of things but under pressure from activists focused itself on its insulation business. As such, it was already part of my portfolio some time ago as part of the “insulation basket”.
2023 was a transition year with “Noisy” earnings, but the Q1 update was surprisingly strong:
Recticel also used their cash buffer to acquire another Belgian company that produces insulation panels. A move that I would have also expected form my portfolio company Sto, but they didn’t do anything yet.
The long term share price clearly shows the uninspiring past:
Nevertheless, as a focused insulation player, I have Recticel on “watch” anyway.
185. Pantech (Expert Market)
This Expert Market stock was last traded in Sep. 2021. “Pass”.
186. BEM Invest (Expert Market)
This stock was last traded 7 years ago. “Pass”.
187. Aedifica
This 2,8 bn EUR market cap company is once again a real estate company that has seen better times. However, most likely due to its specialization on elderly care, it doesn’t seem to be in deep distress:
In any case, nothing for me, “pass”.
188. PB Finance (Expert MArket)
This Expert Market Penny Stock traded last in 2015. “Pass”.
189. Quest for Growth NV
This 81 mn market cap investment company doesn’t seem to have found what they were looking for. At least this indicates the Share price:
Interestingly, according to TIKR they have negative EV which might be not correct. If I understand it correctly it is this closed end fund.
The listed part of the portfolio is very interesting, among others they own EVS and ABO Energy. The VC part looks less solid though.
According to this chart, the current valuation at the moment gives zero value to the unlisted part:
As I find the stock selection interesting, I’ll put them on “watch”.
190. Softimat
This 4 mn EUR market cap stock looks like another failed Real Estate developer. “Pass”.
191. Ackermans Van Haaren (AvH)
AvH is one of the more successful Belgian conglomerates. With 5,5 bn EUR market cap, AvH has a decent long term value creation track record:
I had covered AvH both in 2014 and once again in the beginning of this year.
As some readers might recall, I actually invested into DEME, a subsidiary of AVH because I thought that this was the best asset and it paid off well. I am not so sure about some of the other businesses. Still a company to “watch” though.
192. Utexbel (Expert MArket)
Expert Market stock that traded last 9 years ago. “Pass”.
193. CHEMINS DE FER BELGES (Sté nationale des) – BELGISCHE SPOORWEGEN (Nationale Mij der) – Expert MArket
This seems to be an artifact of the Belgian National Railway. “Pass”.
194. Spadel
This 790 mn EUR market cap company seems to be in the business of selling mineral water. The company seems to be 93% owned by its CEO and very thinly traded: They claim to be market leaders in Belgium and interestingly in Bulgaria. What a Combo.
The company has net cash and seems to be doing quite OK, but 2022 saw a significant drop in profits. Overall, this does not too interesting to me, therefore I’ll “pass”.
195. Solvay
Solvay is a 3,5 bn EUR market cap Chemicals company that has been just undergoing a major re-org Spin-Off exercise which explains the big drop in Share price:
David Einhorn had pitched SOlvay in April as a top pick, he has some experience with European Chemical companies.
The valuation is still very very cheap. Here is a Video of Einhorn explaining the idea at a high level:
The Spin Off Syensqo has retained about ¾ of the total equity value. After the Einhorn pitch, Solvay gained around 20%, but still looks interesting. “Watch”.
196. Solvac
With Solvac, for once I overruled the almighty random number generator and tackle this 2,3 bn company right after Solvay because it is actually the Holding company, that owns ~30% of both, Solvay and Spin-Off Syensqo.
They have this nice graph on their web site which makes it easy to calculate the value:
I quickly calculated the value at the time of writing and it looks like this:
Solvac passes on the dividend received to shareholders. Due to the discount to NAV, the dividend yield is ~5,5%.
Solvac has a nice chart showing the last 40 years of dividend history:
However we can also see that the share price did little for the past 20 years:
As a pure dividend play, Solvac is not interesting for a German investor due to te high withholding tax in Belgium. Nevertheless, I would put Solvac as part of the “solvay” family on “watch”.
